What is criminology?

• It’s the scientific study of crime

• Criminology is NOT:

  • The same as criminalistics
  • The same as criminal profiling
  • An investigative technique used by detectives
  • A course you take to learn how to get away with a crime

How did criminology emerge?

Infected

Syntoms

Diagnosis

Treatment

Cured

Social backdrop

• Urbanization & industrialization
  • Massive influx of people from rural areas and other countries
• Percentage of young men increased
• Birth control & divorce rate
• Culture change

Crime increase

Emergence of criminology programs

• 1963
  • University of Montreal
  • University of Toronto
• 1967
  • University of Ottawa
• 1973
  • Simon Fraser University

Policies, programs & interventions

• Community programs
• Correctional treatments
• Community policing
• Hot spot policing
• Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)
• Situational crime prevention (SCP)

Effective results?

Blank canvas

People in the front

People in the right

People in the left

Multiple perspectives

Crime in Criminology

What influences how we explain crime?

The Classical School

Enlightenment–mid 1700s to late 1700s

The Positivist School

Rise of social Darwinism - science & medicine - Mid 1800s into 1900s

MAINSTREAM CRIMINOLOGY - Chicago School, Anomie-Strain, Control

Multiple social changes - 1900-early 1960s

CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY - Labelling, conflict, Marxist, feminist, white-collar

Social turmoil - 1965-late 1970s

Opportunity theories - RAT, Rational choice, Environmental criminology

Conservative era - 1980s-early 1990s and beyond

Biosocial, Life-course/developmental

Technological advancements - 2000 to present

Criminological theory

Key concepts and terms

• Multidisciplinary social science
• Criminology
• Criminalistics
• Criminal profiling
• Situational Crime Prevention (SCP)
• Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)